THE UNCED PROCESS

During the extensive negotiations of Chapter 17 of Agenda 21,
"Protection of oceans, all kinds of seas including enclosed and
semi-enclosed seas, coastal areas and the protection, rational use
and development of their living resources," the issue of high seas
fisheries proved to be among the most difficult. At the conclusion
of PrepCom III, which was held in August 1991 in Geneva, straddling
and highly-migratory fish stocks were one of five unresolved issues
in the section on living marine resources. The issue proved so
divisive that the Secretariat did not prepare text on high seas
fisheries in its draft of Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 for the start of
PrepCom IV, held in March 1992 in New York. For nearly four of the
five weeks of PrepCom IV a contact group on marine living resources
(Programme Areas C and D of Chapter 17) met behind closed doors and
attempted to reach consensus. By the conclusion of PrepCom IV,
consensus remained elusive and the Plenary adopted the Oceans
chapter with brackets around the paragraphs on straddling and
highly migratory fish stocks.

At the Earth Summit in Rio in June 1992, the Chairman of the Main
Committee (and formerly PrepCom Chair) Tommy T.B. Koh of Singapore
requested that the United States conduct informal consultations in
order to find compromise text on the issue of straddling and highly
migratory fish stocks, rather than allowing lengthy and acrimonious
discussions between Canada and the European Community. Twenty-four
hours later a compromise was in hand. The resulting text for
paragraph 17.52 read: "States should convene an intergovernmental
conference under UN auspices with a view to promoting effective
implementation of the provisions of the Law of the Sea on
straddling and highly migratory fish stocks." The EC accepted this
language once text was added to say that the conference would draw
on scientific and technical studies by the FAO and be fully
consistent with the provisions of the Law of the Sea, in particular
the rights and obligations of coastal states and states fishing the
high seas.